South questions accuracy of cruise missiles launched from North's new warship

North Korea

Published: 21 Aug. 2023, 17:38 Updated: 21 Aug. 2023, 17:53

South questions accuracy of cruise missiles launched from North's new warship

Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central Television released this photograph of a suspected Hwasal-2 cruise missile being launched from a new North Korean naval frigate on Monday. [YONHAP]

North Korea's state media reported Monday that leader Kim Jong-un observed the launch of several cruise missiles from a new frigate during his inspection of a naval flotilla, but South Korean officials later cast doubts on the missiles’ accuracy.

The report on the North Korean leader’s visit was released the same day that South Korea and the United States kicked off Ulchi Freedom Shield, a large-scale joint military and civil exercise designed to bolster preparedness against the North’s advancing military threats.

According to the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim recently visited a naval unit responsible for defending the North’s eastern coast and watched “strategic cruise missiles” being launched from a new Amnok-class naval corvette.

During the drill, the missiles launched from the ship “rapidly hit [their] target without even an error,” the KCNA said in an English-language report.

In this footage released by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central Television, a cruise missile is launched from a newly commissioned Amnok-class naval frigate. [YONHAP]

The state news agency did not specify the timing of Kim’s visit.

Photos released by state media of the new corvette, labeled Patrol Ship No. 661, showed it has around eight cruise missile launch tubes.

The missiles launched from the ship appeared to be Hwasal-2 cruise missiles, which were tested earlier this year on land and from a submarine, according to previous state media reports.

The state news agency reported that Kim vowed during his visit to modernize his navy’s weaponry to make it an “all-round and powerful” force with both offensive and defensive capabilities above the surface and underwater.

He also called for the deployment of anti-aircraft missiles along the eastern coast, according to the KCNA.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, gives guidance to naval officials in this footage released by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central Television on Monday. The number of the new naval frigate, 661, can be seen behind him above the dock. [YONHAP]

But the North’s claims about the cruise missiles were questioned by South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), which said the North Korean state media report was “exaggerated and different from the facts.”

The JCS told reporters in a text message on Monday that South Korea and the United States detected signs of the cruise missile launches in advance and “have been monitoring them in real time.”

A South Korean defense official who later spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity said the cruise missiles were not “strategic” based on the relatively small size of the North Korean frigate.

The official added that the missiles failed to hit their preset target but did not present proof to back up his claims.

The JCS also told reporters that the South Korean military will conduct its ongoing Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with the United States with “high intensity” and in a “thorough” way to maintain a “firm readiness” to respond “overwhelmingly” to any North Korean attacks.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, right, observes the launch of a ship-borne cruise missile from a distance in this undated footage released by Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central Television on Monday. [YONHAP]

The joint South Korean-U.S. military exercise started on Monday and is scheduled to run until Aug. 31.

The exercise involves 58,000 South Korean and U.S. troops and features various drills, including a computer simulation-based command post exercise, simultaneous large-scale field training and Ulchi civil defense drills involving different agencies across the South Korean government.

On Monday, South Korea’s Air Force staged its own air drills across 12 units nationwide.

Twenty aircraft, including F-35A, F-15K, KF-16 and FA-50 fighter jets, were mobilized for the exercise, which focused on intercepting hypothetical enemy cruise missiles and intrusions by hostile aircraft.

Troops from air and missile defense units also rehearsed tracking and shooting down enemy missiles and aircraft using surface-to-air missile systems, including the mid-range Cheongung system, according to the Air Force.

This year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield is set to feature a total of 30 joint field training drills by the allies, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The North has long objected to the allies’ annual military drills, accusing them of rehearsing for an invasion of its territory. South Korea and the United States denied the accusation, arguing the drills are defensive in nature.

Kim has also recently upped tensions on the peninsula by calling for a “drastic boost” in the country’s missile production capacity and upgrading his regime’s “offensive” capabilities.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers on Thursday during a closed-door briefing that the North is preparing various “provocative” acts during the allies’ joint exercise, such as an intercontinental ballistic missile launch.

During their three-way summit at Camp David, Maryland, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol agreed with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to strengthen their countries’ joint cooperation against rising military threats from North Korea.

They agreed to hold annual joint military exercises, to cooperate closely for stronger missile defense against North Korea and to regularize the trilateral summit, as well as lower-level talks.

Biden told reporters that the three countries “all committed to swiftly consult with each other in response to threats to any one of our countries from whatever source it occurs,” adding they will have a “hotline to share information and coordinate our responses whenever there is a crisis in the region or affecting any one of our countries.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]